Briefly

Mannequins were stripped clean, jewelry cases smashed, racks of expensive suits carted off, dozens of cash registers cracked open and at least one member of the Kenyan security services arrested, caught with a bloody wallet.

The looting of the Westgate mall, the scene of a siege in which scores of people were killed last month, appeared to have the scope and organization of a large-scale military operation.

Some business leaders even question whether the army prolonged the crisis by saying shooters were still in the building when they were actually dead, to give themselves extra time to steal.

“It's disgraceful,” said Maina Kiai, a human right activist. “It's part of a nasty culture where power means everything, where you take what you can, you do whatever you want, and there's no accountability.”

The military said Thursday that it was “committed to get to the bottom of this” and appealed for information about soldiers who may have looted.

U.S. to fly drones from Japan base

The U.S. military will deploy long-range Global Hawk surveillance drones from Japan next year, U.S. and Japanese officials said Thursday, marking the first time the Pentagon has been able to secure basing rights for the advanced unmanned aircraft in Northeast Asia.

The Air Force will begin flying two or three Global Hawks from a base in Japan next spring, a senior U.S. administration official said during a visit to Japan by Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

The primary mission will be to fly near North Korea, an area where U.S. officials hope they will greatly enhance spying capabilities. The Air Force has Global Hawks at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the U.S. territory in the Pacific, but North Korea is at the edge of their range and their flights often are curtailed because of bad weather.

The unarmed drones carry multiple spy sensors and are the most advanced surveillance aircraft in the Air Force's fleet. They fly at altitudes above 60,000 feet, placing them out of range of most air defenses. Without pilots in the cockpit, they can fly for more than 28 hours at a time, giving them an unmatched range of nearly 9,000 nautical miles.

The presence of Global Hawks in East Asia is sure to irritate China, which has increasingly pushed back against the U.S. military presence in the region.

Far-right leader jailed pending trial

The head of Greece's Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn party and one of his lawmakers were locked up in a maximum-security Athens prison Thursday, after judges ordered their detention pending trial on charges of running a criminal organization.

Nikos Michaloliakos, 56, and Yiannis Lagos will be held in a secluded section of the Korydallos Prison's women's section, without contact with any other prisoners for fear they might be attacked. They are the first sitting members of a Parliament to be jailed since the fall of the 1967-1974 military dictatorship – which Golden Dawn openly praises.

Their cells are close to, but isolated from, those where convicted members of the far-left November 17 terrorist group are held.

Once far beyond the pale, the extremist Golden Dawn party has risen to the third most popular in depression-ravaged Greece, despite widespread accusations that it organizes attacks on immigrants, political opponents and gays. The party's top ideologue, Christos Pappas, also was ordered held in prison.

Also,

Swarms of giant hornets have killed 42 people in Shaanxi province in northwest China and injured more than 1,600 in recent months, according to Xinhua, the official news agency. Government officials have yet to figure out why the attacks have been so widespread and so deadly. The Asian giant, or Vespa mandarinia, the world's largest hornet species, can grow up to 2 inches long, and its stinger can extend nearly a quarter of an inch.